Hurricane Isaias roared ashore late Friday evening near Destin, Florida, with winds estimated at 105 mph, making it a Category 2 storm at landfall. The hurricane has since weakened overnight to a post-tropical cyclone as it spins inland over Alabama on Saturday morning.
Trees and power lines were down in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, creating dangerous conditions and forcing road closures late Friday, officials said. Power outages are in the hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across much of Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and western Georgia.
The storm broke a two-year drought of U.S. hurricane landfalls, with the most recent being Hurricane Milton in October 2024, two years to the day before Isaias made landfall.
As of 5:00 a.m.
ET Saturday, the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Isaias was located 25 miles from Montgomery, Alabama, and was moving to the north at 14 mph. Its maximum sustained winds were 35 mph. Isaias will move northward across Alabama before moving into the Tennessee Valley later Saturday and into Sunday, when it will make a northeastward turn.
Tropical Storm Rachel takes aim on Southern California
08:49 AM ET, October 10 2026, Doyle RiceJust as folks in the southeastern U.S. are cleaning up and coping with the aftereffects of Hurricane Isaias, Californians are dealing with a rare visit from a tropical storm.
Moisture from Tropical Storm Rachel is forecast to bring heavy rain, flash flooding, and high winds to Southern California, the Southwest, and Great Basin late Saturday into Sunday, NOAA's Weather Prediction Center (WPC) said in an online forecast.
Rachel, still over the eastern Pacific, is forecast to come ashore in Mexico, then cross the California state line as a tropical storm, depression or tropical wind and rainstorm later this weekend, AccuWeather said. There is a risk of life-threatening flash flooding across the desert canyons and arroyos of the southwestern United States.
To the north, a separate storm will move into the Northwest and northern Rockies with snow forecast for the northern Rockies, the WPC said. "The heaviest snow is expected for higher mountain elevations with totals of 6-12 inches, locally higher, possible. Some snow is also expected for lower valley elevations as well as the immediate High Plains east of the Rockies, with some lighter accumulations expected. The snow should taper off later Sunday into Monday."
The only official tropical storm landfall in Southern California was in 1939. Multiple storms have come close to making landfall since then with Hilary from 2023 being the most recent, AccuWeather said.
Rain from a separate system, now Hurricane Simon, may reach New Mexico and the Great Plains early next week, according to AccuWeather.
Isaias joins list of October hurricanes to hit Florida
08:48 AM ET, October 10 2026, Doyle RiceHurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, at 8:30 p.m. CDT Friday as a powerful Category 2 hurricane, hammering the western Florida Panhandle with destructive winds, torrential rain and dangerous storm surge, AccuWeather said.
Isaias is the fourth October Florida landfalling hurricane since 2000, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach, writing on X. "The other three were: Wilma (2005), Michael (2018) and Milton (2024)."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Isaias weakening after lashing Gulf Coast as a Category 2 hurricane
